The biannual Hemoglobin Switching Conference has been ongoing for 37 years, and there are multiple reasons for its resounding success. First and foremost, the organizers (Stamatoyannopoulos, Higgs and Engel) strive to identify and then highlight new discoveries by always including new investigators and studies that impinge on the process of hemoglobin switching. Second, this is the only venue (other than the annual ASH meeting, with more than 14,000 attendees) that brings together basic scientists and clinicians to discuss both the molecular and developmental origins of, and treatments for, hemoglobinopathies. Third, the meetings have historically morphed into focusing on wherever the science led, thus remaining extremely topical, and has not only been the forum for presenting the first cDNA clones, the first cloned human genomic locus (and the first mutations in same), the structure of erythropoietin, but it has also launched the careers of many of the current leaders in this field (indeed, numerous postdoctoral fellows and young faculty first presented their work in plenary sessions at this conference). Fourth, this is the only meeting on this topic that routinely has approximatel equal attendance by investigators from both inside and outside the U.S., and this fact is reflected by the bi-annual alternation in site between the U.S. and Europe. In 2014 the Conference will again be held at St. Johns College at Oxford University in Oxford, England, because of both international accessibility and economy.